In such a receiver, in general, automatic tuning is effected in the following manner. If a scan switch is turned on, for example, the AM or FM band is scanned from the lowest extremity to the highest extremity. If a broadcasting signal is detected, the scanning temporarily (for about 5 seconds, for example) stops there. If the automatic scanning mode is cancelled during the time, the radio receiver is tuned at the broadcasting station and continues receiving the signals from the station. If the automatic scanning mode is not cancelled during the temporary stay, the scanning operation starts again.
In case that there are merely a few FM broadcasting stations and programs as in Japan, a desired broadcasting program is often not caught even if the overall receivable band, i.e. 76.1 to 89.9 MHz, is automatically scanned by 100 kHz step. In a conventional system if a desired broadcasting program is not found by the FM band scanning, a user must change the band from FM to AM to succeedingly scan the AM band until the desired broadcasting program is caught. Additionally, since the band changeover must be done manually, the conventional system troubles users.